A New Life
by PrincessAurora1000
Summary: Life as a superhero is never easy. In one moment things have managed to become even more complicated for one young hero.
1. Chapter 1

When Richie woke up it felt as if he had been run over by a herd of angry elephants, who than turned back around just to be sure that the got him. Groaning he slowly opened his eyes and noticed that he was in a hospital room, either that or someone seriously redecorated his room.

Slowly he sat up and leaned against the bed frame. He was happy to notice that he had no broken or sprained bones, he has had more than his fair share of those and they were hard to explain away. Luckily, when he got his last sprain happen when his school bus was attacked so he did not have to worry about excuses.

Just as he was sitting up the door to his room opened.

"Mr. Foley, you should not be trying to sit up," the doctor said.

"What happened?" Richie asked.

"What do you remember?" the doctor asked as he got Richie to lay down.

"Not much," Richie lied. Now that he gotten over the shock of waking up in the hospital, he remembers what happened. Ebon and Hotstreak, who had fused together after their last fight, had returned and had attacked down town. When they had confronted them he and Virgil had a hard time keeping up, and had taken a lot of hits. Richie had taken one that had thrown him into a car. The hit must have knocked him out, because Richie doesn't remember much after that.

Of course, he could not tell the doctor all of this.

"Mr. Foley, you can be honest with me," the doctor said, "I know that you are Gear, I need to know what you remember so I can see if there are any memory issues from that hit on the head."

At this Richie sat straight up ignoring the pain.

"Mr. Foley, you need to relax. You don't need to worry as a doctor is my job to keep information about my patients private," the doctor said.

"How did you find out," Richie asked.

"Don't worry about that right now," the doctor said. "Can you tell me what you remember?"

Richie told him, however the fact that the doctor knew is identity did not set well with him.

The doctor paid little attention to Richie's worries and continued examining him.

"I have to say you are very luck. Hitting that car at that speed could have done a lot of damage, but it appears that it is just a couple of bad bruises and scratches. We were worried about there being some damage due to how hard you hit your head, but everything appears fine. We will need you to stay here tonight for observation," the doctor said, making some notes on his clipboard. "You should be out there fighting crime in a week or so, proved that you rest and take it slow."

At this Richie simply nodded. The doctor showed him how to call a nurse and left.

Now along Richie could not help, but wonder how the doctor knew who he was. He wasn't injured bad enough for Virgil to feel the need to tell his identity to a doctor, so how did he find out.

While Richie was trying to figure this out there was a knock at his door. When Richie turned to see who it was Virgil walked in in his Static uniform, closing the door behind him.

"Hey Richie," Virgil said sounding just a little nervous.

"Static," Richie said. "Why…"

Richie was having a little trouble finding a way to ask him why he was visiting him in his Static custom. As far as anyone knew Static did not know Richard Foley, so were likely to wonder why he was visiting him. Something they would not do if he came as Virgil.

"The only way I was going to be able to get in to see you was as Static," Virgil said, answering Richie's unasked question.

Virgil sighed.

"I asked the doctors not to say anything, hoping I could find the right way to break it to you. But I think it would be better if I just show you."

With that Virgil took the remote off of Richie's bedside table and turned on the TV to the local news station.

"For those of you just tuning in, it was a scene of panic today when a new bang baby monster attacked downtown Dakota. Static was able to drive the monster away, but not before it knocked Gear into a nearby car. The force of the hit had knocked the young hero's mask off," The reporter said.

At her words Richie felt the color drain from his face.

"The hero has been identified as local teen Richard Foley, and he has been taken to Dakota Central Hospital for care."

At this Richie took the remote from Virgil and turned off the television.

There were a few moments of quiet in the hospital room as both Richie and Virgil fought to find something to say.

"So everyone now knows who I am," Richie asked in a voice so small Virgil almost didn't hear it.

"Yeah, pretty much," Virgil said.

"My parents?" Richie asked.

"Are in the waiting room now," Virgil said. "They got here not along after you did. Apparently they had seen the fight on the news and came as soon as they could. Even before the news announced who you were."

"Great," Richie said running his hands through his hair. "I'm going to be grounded from now till I'm 50."

"Nay, more like till your 18," Virgil said. "The hospital staff haven't let them in yet, because they wanted you to wake up first."

"That is going to be a fun conversation," Richie said, and than he thought of something.

"Hey V, do they know who you are?"

Virgil shook his head. "Some people have made the connection, but very few people believe that I am Static. Sharon, however, now knows that I'm Static."

At this Richie raised his eyebrow.

"Apparently the two of us are 'glued to the hip' and she finds it hard to believe that one of us will be a superhero and the other not," Virgil said putting air quotes around the words 'glued to the hip'.

"I'm telling you man, I've never seen Sharon that mad," Virgil said.

"And to think that I'm over here worrying about my parents," Richie said with a smile.

"Anything else that happened while I was asleep?" Richie asked.

"Remember when it was revealed that Adam was Rubberband Man and all the people who wanted to talk with Sharon," Virgil said, "It looks like all of them and everyone they know is trying to get into see you. I think that is why they haven't let your parents in yet. You would not believe how many people are claiming to know you. There was even this one girl who said she was your fiancé and the two of you were just waiting for graduation to get married."

"Virgil can you do me a favor and knock me out?" Richie asked, "Maybe if you hit me hard enough I will be knocked out and wake up in a world were this did not happen."

"I don't think it works like that," Virgil said.

"It worth a shot."

After a while Virgil left and, with a little courage he didn't know he had, Richie asked the nurse to let his parents in. The conversation that followed was as bad as Richie thought.

"What were you thinking?" Sean said clearly trying to keep his voice down.

"You could have been killed, while you were out there playing vigilante."

"Sean, please calm down," Maggie said.

"Calm down, Maggie our son was almost killed today and he has been putting himself in danger for a while now," Sean said turning to his wife.

"And getting worked up about it now will not fix anything," Maggie countered.

"Well, its kind of hard not to, seeing as he will never be able to have a normal life now," Sean said.

"Oh, Sean…" Maggie started.

"Maggie you saw those reporters out there. Richie may be done with this hero nonsense, but it will always follow him."

"Wait a minute," Richie said. Richie had been letting his parents get things off of their chest, but his dad could not mean what he thought he meant.

"What do you mean I'm done with this hero nonsense?"

"Richie you can't honestly believe that your mother and I would let you continue with this. Whether you noticed it or not it is dangerous," Sean said.

"But, Dad…" Richie said.

"No, buts Richie," Sean said, "This is my final word on the matter. You will not be endangering yourself like this."

"To be honest, with the media attention all of this is getting I'm thinking we may have to move," Sean added. "That is a decision that we will have to make at a later date."

Richie could not believe his ears, not only did his parents want him to stop being Gear, but they might even make him move from Dakota. The day had started like any other day, in one moment it had turned his world upside down.


	2. Chapter 2

Richie's release from the hospital came sooner than he would have liked it too. While he was there he could forget about everything. He didn't have to think about his parents knowing or even the whole city.

Now he would have to face reality.

Since Richie was not badly hurt he did not need to stay in the hospital and so now only one day after being relieved as Gear he had to go out and face the world.

At the moment Richie was staying behind his parents as they signed his release papers.

"Come on, son its time to go home," Sean said after he finished and started heading for the door.

Richie just nodded and followed his parents. His dad was nervous and Richie could tell it be the sound of his voice.

When they got to the front door of the hospital, Richie took a deep breath and walked out.

At first he was blinded. There were flashing lights everywhere. After his eyes cleared he noticed that the lights were coming from cameras. The paparazzi was there waiting for him. To think a few days ago he would have thought it would be cool to have the paparazzi taking pictures of you. Now he that he saw what that was really like, he would do anything for them to go away.

No wonder celebrities complain about them so much.

The paparazzi was one thing, but they were nothing compared to the reporters who happened to be waiting for him.

"Mr. Foley, how does it feel for the world to know who you are?"

"Gear, could you give us an idea on what the identity of Static is?"

"What does your discovery mean for your future as Gear?"

At this Sean spoke up, "We have decided as a family that Richie's crime fighting days are over. We ask that our privacy be respected."

With that Sean took Richie's arm and forced his way though the crowd of people to their car.

"We didn't decide as a family that my days as Gear were over," Richie thought, "You decided that."

However, Richie kept his thoughts to himself. After all these years he knew that with his dad it was best to wait things out. He believed that if he gave his dad a few days to get use to the idea that he was Gear, he would be more open to him continuing to be Gear.

When they got home there was just as big a crowd outside in their front yard as there was at the hospital. This time Sean said nothing to them, the family simply walked into the house. Once they were inside Sean pulled the curtains over the windows so that the reports could not see inside the house.

After that nothing else was said about him being Gear and his being forced to stop.

This worried Richie a little. Apart from telling him that they did not want him to be Gear anymore there was no punishment. Nothing was said about grounding him, taking way his allowance, or even his phone privileges. If it wasn't for the reporters outside Richie would think it was the same as any other day.

Once he had gotten home Richie had called Virgil and talked for a while. They kept the conversation away from anything to do with what had happened. Richie was a little surprised by this, because this effect him as well and he knew Virgil knew that he was no longer allowed to be Gear. It had been all over the news.

Richie's dad almost always had the news on, so Richie knew that that been the top story today. Which surprised him.

Who would have ever thought that him resigning from the superhero business would be a big deal. It had even made the national news. This was something that Richie could not help but smile at. Him and Virgil were well known in Dakota, but they were no where near the big leagues when it came to heroes. Apparently, they were big enough to be talked about on all the major news stations.

After Virgil had hung up to go on patrol, Richie entertained himself a little bit by watching the reporters sitting outside though the curtains.

What a boring job that had to be. Thinking you were onto some great story, but in the end you had to sit outside some random kid's house with little to no chance of getting any new information.

Richie heard his door open.

"Richie, are you alright?" Maggie asked.

"I guess," Richie said turning to face his mom.

Maggie walked into Richie's room and sat down on the bed.

"I just want everything to calm down a little bit," Richie said.

"Don't worry, there are a lot of heroes out there who have revealed who they were or were discovered. While the press had their little field days, it quickly became old news," Maggie said.

"Things don't go completely back to normal for them either," Richie said joining his mom on the bed.

"Change is a part of life Richie, good and bad," Maggie said.

At this Richie smiled.

After a small moment of silence, Richie asked a question that had been bothering him since he had gotten home.

"Mom why have I am not been punished for lying to you about all this or sneaking out or all the other rules I broke doing this. I know that you don't want me to be Gear any more, but I thought that…"

"Come on, I know that you don't want to be punished," Maggie said cutting her son off. "And to answer your question, you not being punished because we are proud of what you choose to use your new abilities for. We may not agree with the fact that your putting yourself in danger, but we are happy with your reasons for doing it."

"Dad didn't seem so proud," Richie said.

"Your dad is just worried. You have no idea how scared he was when he saw you get hurt on TV. He just wants you to be safe," Maggie said.

"So you guys are proud of what I did, but don't want me to do it again," Richie said scratching his head. "Mom, you know that makes no sense."

"Neither does finding out your teenage son is a superhero," Maggie says with a smile.

Richie returns the smile.

"So do you think that you are proud enough not to make me go to school tomorrow."

Maggie laughed, "We'll see."


End file.
